Prince’s Trust Award for Nova Hreod Academy

The mathematics faculty at Nova Hreod Academy has been awarded the Prince’s Trust Award for their work with the Trust to develop excellence in teaching. The overall aim of the Trust is to promote a research-focused mathematics department that shares resources with other schools and uses their own research to benefit others. The award recognises Nova’s participation in the Prince’s Trust programme, reflecting the mathematics faculty’s willingness as a department to improve practice through research and collaboration.

Maths teacher Toby Watkins has worked hard over the past three years with the Prince’s Trust, by taking part in development programs and preparing a report for the trust in regards to various aspects of Nova Hreod’s curriculum and teaching, focusing on mastery learning. A second report detailed how the department was progressing in terms of objectives set in the first year, focusing on various aspects such as how our schemes of learning moved towards mastery and how our students were getting on with this. Alongside this we also had to share individual resources and research. Mr Watkins has represented the Academy at Trust events and delivered a research proposal focusing on how skill development can help improve students’ understanding of topics and problem solving skills in maths. Over the course of this year he will be writing this research and presenting Skill Builder to the Trust and its members.

Principal Darren Barton said: "We are delighted to have been awarded as an 'Associate Department' by the Prince's Trust in recognition of our continued participation with the Trust. This is an important accolade for us and we will continue to collaborate through the trust to benefit the students here at Nova.”